At least 50 lecturers from nine local varsities are gathered at the University of Rwanda for a 5-day Global e-Commerce Talent (GET) Training of trainers. The training is facilitated by Alibaba global initiative team from China. Trainers are expected to incorporate GET content in the existing courses to help students to be better equipped with e-commerce knowledge and promote the development of global e-commerce.

Speaking during the training Ms Dream Liu, who is responsible for Strategic Partnership Development in Alibaba Global Initiative noted that the training aims to provide practical e-Commerce training to the university lecturers. She added that digital talent development is very important particularly in Rwanda with its vision to become a hub of information and communications technology in Africa. The training for the university lecturers will enable them to integrate e-Commerce education in their existing teaching, which in the end will upgrade education e-Commerce entrepreneurship.

Ms Dream Liu from Alibaba Global Initiative

According to Liu, e-Commerce has enormously benefited China due to the massive usage of internet- 800 million internet users- helps China to create a viable digital economy and she hopes that the new move will upgrade the talents in Rwanda in e-Commerce area.

“We hope that if we can share this model with lecturers, it will enable Rwanda to witness the same transformation that China has gone through” She said.

From the 50 trained lecturers, the training projects to reach out to at least 5,000 students who will benefit from Global e-Commerce Talent. The new digital business will trigger the development of SMEs in the creation of innovation and entrepreneurship opportunities for young people. It will also lower barriers for commerce by promoting cashless society while creating more job opportunities.

One of the participants observing an item for sale online

For the successful implementation of e-Commerce, various aspects are to be addressed including government policies that nurture innovation and risk taking, access to training as well as access to capital. Besides, other infrastructure such as reliable Internet connectivity and a health ecosystem appropriate to varied entrepreneurs should be taken into consideration.

The training brought together university lecturers from marketing, business, commerce or entrepreneurship related fields, ideally with teaching or business experience in ecommerce. They are expected to incorporate the GET content in the existing courses to help students to be better equipped with e-commerce knowledge and promote the development of global e-commerce.

Other trainers include Ms Savannah Zheng (Left )and Mr Steven Zheng

Participants from different universities attended the e-Commerce training